Yesterday's Heroes
by Belandra
Summary: Some people say that in order to become the worst enemies you have to have been best friends once. For James and Sirius it was the other way round. Join them in their years at Hogwarts. Please read and review.
1. First Impressions

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. 

I decided to write this fanfic, after The Order of the Phoenix ruined the plot for my other story. It starts in first year and concentrates on the marauders. Since I'm not a native English speaker, I desperately need a beta for this story, so if you want to do that, e-mail me at belandragmx.de. I'd be very grateful. If you don't want to beta read, I'd appreciate a review as well. Thanks.

Well, here we go. I hope you enjoy the story.

**Chapter 1: First Impressions**

It was a cool and windy Sunday morning. The streets of London were comparatively deserted, without all the cars of people trying to get to work. There were just a couple of busses, shipping tourists from one sight to the other, and a few pedestrians walking the streets lazily and looking in one of the shop windows from time to time. The atmosphere was that kind of relaxed as you often meet it on days, when everybody is at ease and nobody has to hurry to get to an appointment. But that apparent peace was suddenly broken by a fast car steering into the street leading to Kings Cross station with squealing tires. A young boy of about eleven years clung to his seat in the front passenger seat, his eyes shut tightly. When he felt the car going straight again, he opened them tentatively, but didn't let go of the bottom of his seat he had clutched in his hands.

"I'm really sorry, that I can't take you to the train but just drop you off. If it hadn't been for that emergency call, I would have seen you off," said a black-haired, stressed looking Mr Potter to his son, as he pulled the violent orange Ford into the parking lot of Kings Cross station.

He had to be at work in ten minutes for a last minute notice meeting about some attack on a wizard who lived in Derbyshire. The man claimed, that a dark wizard had attacked him last night making trees grab him and shove him over a small fence into the river, when he had been on his way home from his favourite bar.

Although the incident sounded funny, James knew that such reports about any dark activity had to be taken very seriously. They lived in a comparatively quiet time, with not many occurrences of that kind, but still neglect to inquire in such cases of possible dark attacks could be disastrous.Although it sounded more like an usual case of drinking too much and seing monsters at every turn.

"That's okay Dad, really no big deal," James replied, to ease his father's anxiety, trying very hard to conquer that slight feeling of disappointment. His mother hadn't been able to come, because she was working the early shift at St. Mungo's today. His Dad had been supposed to take him to the train, but now he was only able to drop him off at the station, before apparating to the ministry, in order to save time.

James started looking around for a free parking spot, but apparently Sunday morning at 9.15 was a very bad time to attempt that, for every single parking space seemed to be occupied. But Mr Potter didn't seem to mind the lack of possibilities to deposit of his vehicle. Unconcerned he raced right to the front of the station building and swerved left abruptly. James heart stopped for a second, as he feared that the car was going to slam right into two other cars parked in front of them. But, as if sensing the danger, they suddenly moved to the sides leaving a sufficient amount of space for the Potter's car.

Mr Potter, who had noticed James's reaction grinned shortly, but came right back to business. Turning the engine of, leaving the car and heaving his sons trunk out of the back was a matter of seconds, before he turned to James, who had taken a little more time to get out of the car and was still a little shaken.

"Well that's it then. What platform does the train start from?" Mr Potter asked hurriedly.

"6 1/3," replied James at once. He knew his letter from Hogwarts by heart, having read it again and again over the course of the summer.

"6 1/3? That's not the one you enter by using the ticket machine. No, I think that's 4 1/7. Well, you can enter most platforms by walking trough the barriers dividing the muggle platforms, so you should try that. But there was also one where you have to tell your destination to an advertisement before it let's you through. Could be 6 1/3, but I don't remember for sure. It's been ages since I last used the train."

Mr Potter had started his speech rather distractedly, but as the moment of farewell was finally upon them, he calmed down a bit and surveyed his son for a last time. Damn the meeting, this was his only son, who would be leaving for Hogwarts and whom he wouldn't be seeing till Christmas. Well, hopefully considered the fact, that James seemed to be attracting trouble as lights attracted moth.

James looked almost as usual with his messy black hair, which his mother hadn't succeeded to tame yet (which wasn't for lack of trying though), and the loop-sided grin on his face. But the hazel eyes, that were hidden behind horn-rimmed glasses looked slightly anxious today. But after all, this was the first time, that James left his parents house for such a long time and was going somewhere, he hardly knew anybody. Mr Potter tried to remember the day he went to Hogwarts for the first time. Man, that seemed to have been in the last century.

"You'll do fine, James. Knowing you, I'm sure you'll find friends in no time," he said encouragingly. Then he pulled him into a tight embrace and ruffled his hair when they pulled apart.

"Bye Dad. Write to me about what you'll find out about that attack in Derbyshire, will you?"

"Sure, and you keep yourself out of trouble. Oh, and try to get sorted into Gryffindor, ok? Love you, James," said Mr Potter.

James waved his Dad good-bye, who was looking around carefully and was gone by a swerve of his cloak, when he was sure no muggle was watching.

James entered the station with difficulty; his trunk kept getting stuck on the pavement. Somebody really should invent a trunk with wheels on the bottom, thought James. But older wizards probably wouldn't bother pulling their trunk; they could just levitate it.

The clock over the entrance told James, that he had still 40 minutes left, before the train would be leaving, So he could take his time to get onto the platform, find a seat on the train and even look around the station for a while.

Something important seemed to be going on in London that day, because muggles seemed to be growing out of thin air everywhere. Most of them were wearing funny clothes or were draped in scarves, either green and white or yellow-blue coloured. James heard them talk about something that sounded like soccer finals, as he passed a group of young boys all wearing green boxers and a green-white patterned shirt. He had no clue what soccer was, but it seemed to be something important. Well that at least explained the cramped parking lot.

Swerving in and out of the groups in order to avoid a collision, James watched the muggles in interest. He had never seen such a great number of them together. They weren't always dressed like that, were they, he wondered. The jeans and T-shirt his parents had given to him as pronounced muggle clothing looked completely different. But James felt also a little concerned, watching them. It would be hard to get onto the magical platform unnoticed, with the station so packed with muggles.

Luckily everybody seemed too preoccupied talking about that soccer match, to notice the slim figure of an eleven-year-old wizard and so James reached the barrier between platforms 6 and 7 without drawing attention. Unobtrusively he reached out to touch the barrier. It was solid. He checked for a second time and still it didn't give way to his pressure. Scanning the platform up and down, James noticed a wall where a large advertisement for cigarettes was placed. Remembering what his father had told him, James approached it slowly. It featured a man and a woman in cool summer clothing, who seemed to be in conversation, but both had a lighted cigarette in their hands. What struck James first was that the people in the pictures were not moving; they seemed to be oddly stiff. Even after watching them for a while he couldn't see a trace of movement in them. Was that a kind of a game they played, like kids often played, who could hold still without moving longer than the other? Feeling slightly stupid for addressing pictures that showed no sign of life, James told them his desire.

"Err, I want to board the 10 o'clock train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Is this the entrance to the platform?" he said.

Nothing seemed to happen first. The people still were not moving and James thought about repeating his question, when the writing on the picture, which had been telling about the risks of smoking, suddenly became a green blur. After swirling a few seconds the blur rearranged itself to form a single word.

'Name?'

"Err, James Potter," said James uncertainly.

Again the words rearranged themselves, now spelling:

'You're checked on the list. Just proceed straight through the gate (advertisement). We hope you will enjoy the ride and choose to travel with the Magical Rail Network again the next time. Have a good day.'

"Err, thanks. You too," said James, still staring at the two figures on the picture, hoping to catch one of them off guard and see them moving. But they wouldn't do him the favour and so he walked through the advertisement, after checking its solidity again. This time his hand didn't hit solid wall, but vanished behind it, so James thought it safe to proceed with his whole body.

Being so early, James was one of the first students to board the train and got an empty compartment. He pushed his trunk into a corner, left his cloak on the seat near the window and decided to go outside again, to stretch his legs and watch the other students arriving on the platform gradually. He would have to sit down long enough on the ride.

The older students were calling out to each other, trying to get the attention of their friends and started forming little groups that boarded the train together in the attempt to get compartments to themselves. James watched a boy, who was squeezing himself between two groups of people in order to reach another boy, who was still saying farewell to his little siblings. He joked with them and ruffled through their hair affectionately. The girl, who was at least five years younger than him, clung to his robes as he embraced his mother and then shook hands with his father. The scene made James painfully aware of the absence of his own parents and so he turned away, just to discover a couple, that seemed to be glued together by the lips. Rolling his eyes, James turned again to walk back to the train, but collided with somebody who knocked him over. Looking up, he encountered the face of a dark haired girl with heavy lidded eyes of about seventeen or eighteen years old. He would have thought her to be quite beautiful, if it hadn't been for the furious expression with which she chose to look down at him.

"Watch where you're going," she spat at him.

James was just going to retort, that it had been her who had run into him, when she turned around, giving her trunk a sharp tuck, so that it hit him in the side very painfully.

Massaging his throbbing side, James got up from the ground and shot her retreating back a dark glance. He felt his temper rising and was just prepared to go after her to demand an apology, when he heard her talking.

"First muggles block the station, so it's almost impossible to get onto the platform, and now stupid first years, that are too dim to stay out of a persons way," she complained to the man walking beside her. "You should have just cursed those muggles out of the way, Dad."

With a stab of surprise, James recognized the tall man she was talking to. It was Pollux Black, a wizard he had seen at the Ministry of Magic before. His Dad had told James quite a few stories about Mr Black and his brother, all involving dark magic and breaches of the wizarding law. Nothing had been proofed against them of course, since the family of the Blacks was a very ancient and, what was more important, wealthy family of purebloods. They had caused Mr Potter some trouble over the years, as he had tried to pin them down for any of their crimes, without success. If that girl belonged to that family, it would explain her bad temper and her abhorrence of muggles, James thought, as he was winding his way back to his compartment. The excitement of the morning had vanished and been replaced by very grumpy feelings.

He noticed another trunk as he entered the compartment, but it's owner was nowhere to be seen. The nametag told James, that the trunk belonged to a certain Severus Snape. Having nothing else to do, he settled himself in his seat and started looking out of the window, where he noticed another girl, with blonde hair, had joined the Blacks. She seemed to be the younger sister of the first one, whom she resembled strikingly, except for the hair. And she wore an expression on her face like someone who had something smelly under her nose, as she watched a lost looking first year girl and her parents, who were definitely muggles.

Another family was approaching the Blacks. It consisted of the parents and two boys. To James great surprise the father of the family looked exactly like Pollux Black. Of course he had known of the Black brothers Castor and Pollux, but James had never been aware of the fact that they were identical twins. James leaned back in his seat as he watched them out of the window. The two wizards were talking to each other. It seemed that they had been talking about their kids, for they suddenly turned their attention to one of the two boys that had accompanied Castor Black. It was the elder and was leaning on a huge trunk with an empty owl-cage placed on top of it. His face was flushed and he grinned sheepishly as he said something to his father, who looked back at him reproachfully.

"That's the Blacks you're staring at," said a snarling voice from behind James.

James jumped and wheeled around to face the voice. He hadn't noticed anybody enter the compartment. It turned out, that the voice belonged to a short, skinny boy of about James's age, who had short dark hair that definitely needed a wash.

"Pollux, Castor, Bellatrix, Narcissa, Sirius and Regulus," the skinny boy counted them off and pointed at each of them in turn. Then he turned to James again and scanned him quickly.

James was slightly taken aback, by the other boys behaviour and didn't know what else to say, other than:

"You know them?"

"My Dad works with Mr Black. I've seen them around sometimes. Looks like Sirius is starting school this year as well," the boy said.

Great, thought James. So it's not only one kid in my year, that's going to be an insufferable pureblood maniac, but two of them. They'll probably start getting matey with each other at once. And he, James had to be stuck in a compartment with one of them. He had imagined his first day of school to be somewhat pleasanter.

"And who _are_ you?" he snapped rather harsher than he had intended to. His bad temper seemed to be getting the better of him.

"Severus Snape," said the other one in mild surprise. "and you are James Potter. At least _I _can read," he said, indicating the trunks.

James felt slightly stupid.

During that conversation the train doors had closed and the train started to move. It gathered speed and left the station behind. Houses and trees flashed past the window. The compartment door opened and none other than Sirius Black stepped in.


	2. Detached

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I know that my grammar is really bad. Please forgive me, I'm not native English.

**_Chapter 2: Detached_**

"Can I sit here? Everywhere else is full," Sirius asked, but didn't wait for an answer. He sat down on the seat opposite Snape's. He glanced at James and then at the boy with the greasy hair. Recognition dawned on his face.

"Snape," he said. Sirius didn't seem to be in a better mood than James.

"Hello, Black," Snape sneered. "Had an argument with your father about how to treat mudbloods?" Sirius glared at Snape.

"Yes, Snivellus. _Don't bother to talk to them, except if you can make them as miserable as possible,_" Sirius imitated his father. "Bet your Dad told you loads of nice little curses to annoy muggle-borns, didn't he?" Sirius asked disgusted, but James didn't catch that. James got annoyed with those two kids arguing about cursing muggles. He felt the blood rise to his head, ringing in his ears.

Don't loose your temper, James. Don't loose your temper, he told himself. When the ringing in his ears subsided, he heard Sirius yell at Snape:

"I'm not like him, running around cursing muggles."

James snorted loudly, not troubling to keep it down.

"I'm serious," Sirius retorted, enraged, looking now at James instead of Snape.

"Yes, _Sirius BLACK_. I gathered as much," said James, spitting out the name Black as if it was something poisonous. Without another word he wheeled around and left the compartment, not feeling the slightest inclination to spend the ride in a compartment with Black.

Not paying attention to where he was going, James bumped into a girl that was just passing by.

"Oh, for heavens sake, have you all been plotting to knock me down today? Well bad luck, there might still be two or three people at the far end of the train who haven't done so yet," he yelled at her without even looking up.

"Hello to you, too, James. What's gotten into you?" the girl said.

James knew that voice and quickly looked up in shocked surprise.

"Alice?" he said, still gaping at her.

She was the last person he had been thinking about meeting today, but since his cousin was a year older than him, it was obvious that she should be at Hogwarts, too. Feeling very embarrassed by his rudeness, he noticed her books scattered around the floor. He picked them up hastily and shoved them back into her hands.

"Oh, I'm really sorry, Alice. I didn't mean to be rude."

Alice, who knew James' temper perfectly well, didn't mind and chose to let it pass, but asked for the cause of his outbreak. James, cursing himself for his habit of taking his temper out on innocent bystanders, told her about his encounter with Bellatrix and Sirius. James followed Alice down the train.

"Hopefully I won't have to deal with any of them anymore, for Sirius will probably be sorted into Slytherin, like the rest of his family. And Bellatrix is definitely in Slytherin, isn't she? I think she had a green prefects badge," he finished his report.

"It's not a prefects badge, it's the head girl's badge. I've seen her on the train," said Alice. "But not all Black's have been in Slytherin. I think one of her sisters is in Ravenclaw."

They finally reached a compartment full of other second year girls and Alice entered it. James hesitated a little bit before following her. After all, he didn't have anywhere else to go.

He sat, forgotten in a corner, while trees and small towns flew by the window. The girls chatted non-stop about their holidays, the upcoming school year and the boys they had a crush on. James rolled his eyes. His mood didn't improve very much during the hours on the train. Spending time with his cousin and a bunch of giggling girls wasn't exactly his idea of fun.

When the train stopped at Hogsmead station, James bid Alice good-bye and followed the huge man that was calling out for the first years. He led them to a fleet of little boats on the lake. James spotted Black and Snape walking a little ahead of him. They were glaring at each other with loathing expressions and it seemed like they had their hands clutched around their wands in the pockets of their robes. They clambered into different boats and James was careful not to go into one of them himself. He chose to follow two girls and a pale and skinny boy into another one.

James was about to sit down when he saw Snape drawing his wand. To his horror, James noticed that he had unwisely stationed himself in the boat that was between Snape and Black.

Snape bellowed something James couldn't understand. A flash of red light erupted from the tip of his wand, which was pointed at Sirius.

But at that moment the boats started to move, which took James right into the line of fire. He tried to dodge the curse, but lost his balance in the small and unsteady boat. Before James fell into the lake however, he felt the curse hit him in the side that was still sore from when Bellatrix's trunk had hit him. For a second, James didn't feel anything and wondered whether the curse had been successful or not, when the force of gravity lost its hold. His feet left the unsteady bottom of the boat and he started to rise inch after inch into the air.

All people turned to look at James, some of them looking just slightly surprised, others were nearly laughing. Nobody seemed to be able to help James until the sandy haired boy in his boat showed the presence of mind to grab James' leg to stop him from rising higher and out of reach.

"Yeh all right over there?" the booming voice of the huge man shouted.

"No, I don't know how to get him down," the boy answered.

"Can't do nuthing about that," the man answered. "Yeh get him down 'ere," he added to Snape.

"Sorry, but I can't," Snape said loftily. "I seem to have forgotten the counter-curse."

Everybody could tell that he was lying. James dived at him to get a hold of Snape's throat. Or at least he tried. He had no control over the directions his body went when he moved. The others laughed at the funny sight of him and the sandy haired boy almost lost his grip on James because of the sudden movement. Hagrid looked slightly worried, but he could do no more than shrug his shoulders.

"Yeh're just have to hold on to him, 'til we're across the lake," he told the boy who was gripping James' leg more tightly than before.

"And yeh're in trouble boy," he added to Snape.

The boats continued to row over the lake, James floating above them like an oversized balloon. People couldn't help laughing anymore. At least _they _think it's funny, James thought.

"How's the air up there?" somebody asked jokingly.

James was too furious to answer.

"The sight up there must be beautiful."

"We should tie him to a rope and see how high he can get," Sirius suggested.

"Oh, shut up," James snapped at him.

He would get back at Snape and Black for that humiliation. Snape getting detention wasn't enough. He would find a way to humiliate Snape as much as Snape had humiliated him today. But not only Snape, Black as well.

After a few more minutes, the fleet reached an underground harbour under the castle. People clambered out of the boats and the sandy haired boy pulled James down with the help of two others. He still wouldn't stay on the ground so they grabbed his arms, tried to hold him steady and marched him up the stairs. The first years were shown into a small room and told that a teacher would soon take care of them and show them into the great hall, where the sorting would take place. At the mentioning of the sorting, the attention of most students was drawn away from James. Amused faces turned into anxious ones and the happy chatter that had filled the air died away a bit. Even James could spare a thought from his present, very uncomfortable situation to worry about the house he would be sorted into.

Minutes passed and nothing happened. People started to talk again and kept glancing at the door through which they had entered the room. Nobody noticed another door at the side swing open and shut again. The chatter became louder and louder again until a sharp whistle took everybody by surprise and stopped all conversations. People looked around for the source of the whistle and the ones nearest to the side door spotted it first.

It was a tall, slim girl with a beautiful face and her blonde hair in a ponytail. She wasn't wearing robes, but common blue jeans and a black T-shirt, which made her look oddly out of place among the first years that were all dressed in their black Hogwarts robes.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. I'm supposed to take you to the great hall. So if you'd follow me," she said in a clear voice, smiling down at them.

"Hagrid told us a teacher would take us there," a girl with red pigtails chimed in the first row.

The smile on the tall girl's face widened.

"Yes, of course. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Professor Palmer, young lady and I'm teaching Defence Against The Dark Arts."

Some students gaped at the Professor. She seemed to be not much older than some of the seventh year students. The red headed girl blushed so deeply that her face became even darker than her hair and she looked like a pepperoni.

"I… I… I'm so sor... sorry Professor," she stuttered. " I didn't know. You look so young and I thought…" her voice died away.

"Don't worry. That happens a lot," the Professor replied, beaming down at her.

She turned and was about to open the door, when James shouted.

"Sorry Professor, but I need your help before we go into the great hall," he said panicking.

He didn't want the whole school to see him floating if he could avoid it somehow. Professor Palmer smiled at him.

"You're a bit tall for a first year student aren't you?" she asked happily. "Did you run in the way of an engorgement charm? Anyway, how can I help you Mr…what's your name?"

Although two boys, James knew them to be Remus Lupin and Blake Conley by now, had a hold on his arms, he was still floating about a foot from the ground. But Professor Palmer didn't notice, because too many students were in the way.

"Err, I'm James Potter and my size would not be the problem," James replied.

Sirius smirked. James glared.

With both feet back on the ground James followed Remus, Blake and the other first years into the great hall. All heads turned around to watch them. Just like the first years themselves, some of them clearly wanted the sorting to be over as quick as possible. They kept looking at their empty plates longingly. Professor Palmer placed a stool in front of the staff-table for the whole school to see and put an old hat on top of it. An older, very strict looking witch took a roll of parchment and started to read out names.

"Ackerley, Armand", was sorted into _Ravenclaw_. The second table from the left cheered.

"Black, Sirius."

James watched Sirius walking to the three-legged stool nervously. James enjoyed the shaky expression on that boy's face. Served him right. Before Sirius sat down he looked to one of the tables. Bellatrix and her little sister were sitting there, watching Sirius expectantly. James noticed that Sirius looked away quickly, his eyes scanning the other tables, finally resting on another dark haired girl, which looked remarkably like the other two girls. They must be sisters James guessed. Maybe that was the cousin in Ravenclaw Alice had mentioned. She smiled at Sirius encouragingly as he settled himself on the stool and Sirius fixed his stare on her like on an anchor. People around the Great Hall started to mutter to their neighbours because he took so much time. But finally Sirius seemed to summon all his courage. Still looking at the girl on the Ravenclaw table, he took a deep breath, then shut his eyes and slammed the hat onto his head decidedly.

James felt himself hold his breath as the sorting hat took some time to consider. Why would it need such a long time, he asked himself. It was obvious that Black belonged in Slytherin, wasn't it? So James almost toppled over in disbelief, when it finally shouted GRYFFINDOR. No way. James stared at Sirius, shocked, who took the hat off, his face wearing a blank expression. But slowly, as if reality needed a little time to sink in, a small, relieved smile appeared on Sirius's face, which was soon replaced by a huge grin. He jumped from the stool, almost knocking it over, and ran toward the cheering Gryffindor table ecstatically.

James couldn't believe it. And apparently he wasn't the only one in the great hall. People started to whisper. Sirius' blonde cousin at the Slytherin table stared at Sirius, her mouth hanging open. Bellatrix looked furious. Only the girl at the Ravenclaw table beamed at Sirius, who gave her a thumbs-up.

James didn't pay much attention to the rest of the sorting. He just stared at Sirius with a loathing expression until his own name was called.

He walked to the stool and took the hat skeptically. Maybe it was damaged? But it looked so old and battered that a hole more or less couldn't make a difference. So James pulled it over his head, where it fell down to his nose. It had hardly touched James's head when it shouted _Gryffindor._

James walked over to the table and spotted Remus sitting there next to a pearly white ghost. He hadn't even noticed when remus was sorted, but was very relieved that he knew someone else in Gryffindor apart from Sirius Black. James settled himself on the chair next to Remus and spent the rest of the evening looking at Sirius, who finally had understood that he couldn't end James's hostility with a joke.

Thank you for reviewing the first chapter. I'll try to update as soon as possible

Chants: _I worked out the plot. So I know, where this is going. But you don't. But you don't._

Has to stop singing quickly because she has a cold.

_Lelegurl9_: Special thanks to you. You've been my first reviewer and I hope, that I won't disappoint you. I'll give my best to continue as soon as possible.

_Zoe_: I had the idea of a different platform when I wrote my other story 'A Hogwarts Story', which I'm not going to continue. There I used it for a part of the plot that would have come up in fourth year. I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to use the idea in this story.

_Aquiel_: I'm glad you liked the advertisement. I had that scene fromHP1, where Ron is trying to make the soccer players on Deans poster move, in mind.

_LyLogoc: _I'm so happy that you really, really liked it. ;-)

_A really, really big thank you to Maranwe for betaing this chapter. _


	3. An Adhesive Situation

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

I'm sorry it took me so long to update. I didn't have access to the internet for a week.

Thanks to everybody for reviewing, you made me so happy.

Special tanks to my wonderful beta Maranwe.

**_Chapter 3: An Adhesive Situation_**

_It was night and a gentle rain was falling, but James didn't feel the drops hit him. It was like an invisible barrier repelled them. He could just look up and see the raindrops fall, but they never ever reached the ground. The scenery changed and James felt a lurch in his stomach as he started floating. He struggled hard to get back to the ground, flapping his arms like windmills. A group of people was standing around, laughing and pointing at him. What was so funny? James looked at his reflection in the window of a steaming scarlet train. Shocked, he discovered that his face was painted like a clown's with a red nose and huge, white grin. His cheeks had round, pink dots and his eyes were highlighted blue. People still pointed at him. He wanted to get away, but something held him back. James looked down bewildered. A rope was tightened around his ankle with a huge knot. James' eyes followed the rope to its other end, which was clamped in the hand of Remus. Remus was walking around the crowd of people, yelling something James couldn't understand at first._

_"Balloons, beautiful, large balloons. Just one sickle a-piece," Remus yelled._

_"No, I'm not a balloon. You're making a mistake," James cried down, but nobody seemed to notice._

_A small redheaded girl with pigtails appeared out of the crowd._

_"Oh Mummy, can I have that big one? The clown?" she said, pointing directly at James._

_The girl's mother appeared. She looked vaguely familiar, with blonde hair in a ponytail, blue jeans and a black T-shirt. She looked rather like the girl's older sister than like her mother._

_"No honey, he's a bit tall, isn't he?" she said, smiling at James serenely._

_They disappeared in the crowd. Other faces appeared. They didn't look friendly but gleeful. Snape and Black. James flung himself at them. He got hold of Snape's robes and was about to punch him, when somebody shook him._

_"James, it's time to get up. Lessons will start in half an hour," said a voice that was vaguely familiar._

"Geroff me," James mumbled in his sleep, rolling around in his bed.

Again, somebody shook him.

"James you will miss the start of the lessons if you don't get up at once. Don't make me dump water on you."

James opened his eyes slowly and blinked a few times. Remus looked down at him.

"Must have been a really good dream. I have been trying to wake you up for at least five minutes," he said.

"No, it was horrible. I'm glad you woke me up."

Remus looked at him quizzically.

"Have you ever sold balloons at a fair, Remus?" James asked suspiciously.

"No, I'd prefer selling chocolate frogs. Why?" said Remus.

"Never mind."

James, being a morning person, jumped out of his bed at once and was surprised to find the dormitory completely deserted except for Remus and himself. Remus had finished packing his schoolbag and was starting towards the door.

"Hurry," he yelled at James, before vanishing through it.

James was making his way towards the bathroom sleepily when he hit his toe on something hard that was lying in the way. Looking down, he saw stacks of schoolbooks scattered around the floor next to various pieces of clothing and dungbombs. Swearing, he pushed the books out of the way with his foot, which wasn't a good idea. _333 Basic Potions for Beginners _by_ Equilibrius Aquatus Paracelsus _landed on top of a dungbomb, which exploded instantly. Within a minute the whole dormitory smelled like a mixture of old cheese, socks and rotten cabbage. James, who had used dungbombs on several occasions himself, was surprised again at the variety of odours they could produce. He didn't mind dungbombs very much as long as they didn't smell like the kind of public toilet nobody ever seemed to clean.

He rushed through the bathroom and dressed quickly. Then he started rummaging through his trunk for school supplies and something else he couldn't find right away. James considered climbing into his trunk to make the search more comfortable for him, when he spotted what he was looking for. Pulling his head out of the trunk he produced a small pouch with an assortment of different coloured solutions. Smiling at them lovingly, he chose a colourless liquid and put it in his schoolbag as well.

When James was all packed, he rushed through the door, down the stairs, out of the portrait hole and… had no clue how to continue. He tried to remember desperately, which way they had come from last night, but couldn't recall anything. Between the welcoming feast in the great hall and his waking up that morning there seemed to be a great, big blank in his memory. Assuming that the Great Hall was somewhere on the first floor, James started towards the first staircase that was going down. He could see the floor below and started running downstairs when the staircase suddenly changed its mind and moved. It was now ending one floor higher than where James had started.

How he reached the Great Hall ten minutes later, James never knew. He remembered running up and down staircases that changed direction, corridors that ended in dead ends and one spiral staircase that had suddenly turned into a slide as he was walking on it. When he had finally decided to give up on the attempt of finding the Great Hall after walking past a picture he was sure he had seen just a minute ago, he heard Remus calling his name.

"James, there you are. I've been waiting for you. No time to eat breakfast anymore. We've to find the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom first," Remus said.

"I'm starving. I need something to eat," James complained.

Remus smiled at him.

"What would you rather have: detention for being late to class or being hungry for just a few hours?" Remus asked.

James didn't have to think about that long as his stomach rumbled.

"I'll take detention. Wasn't expecting to last long without anyway," he said.

Remus rolled his eyes at James and grabbed him by his arm.

"Come on. Defence Against the Dark Arts will be great. At least it will if Professor Palmer knows her remedies. I've heard she started auror training but broke it off for some reason," Remus said excitedly as he dragged James along with him, who cast a longing glance into the Great Hall, where some older students were still having their breakfast. He groaned but followed Remus.

Remus led him down a corridor and headed towards a staircase leading up. He sniffed.

"What's that funny smell?" he asked.

"What smell?" James asked confused, the corridor didn't smell differently than the Entrance Hall.

Then comprehension dawned on his face and he sniffed his robes.

"That's just from a dungbomb," he informed unconcernedly. "Don't you like the odour, Remus?"

"No, not at all," said Remus.

"Then you won't like the smell in the dormitory."

"What? Why?" Remus asked alarmed.

"Because I accidentally blasted a dungbomb. I have to say again, that it was just an accident."

"Does that mean all our stuff smells like that?" Remus asked, dreading the answer.

"Yep," James nodded.

Remus groaned as he walked toward a solid wall in a beeline and vanished. James blinked for a second, but then he remembered the entrance to the platform at Kings Cross and walked toward the wall as well. He slammed into it headfirst and could feel a stabbing pain taking residence in his forehead. Taking a step back, he watched the wall suspiciously, rubbing the sore spot in his face. Suddenly Remus' head appeared out of the wall. James jumped backwards.

"Why aren't you coming, James?" the head asked.

Remus understood when he saw James rubbing his forehead where a large, red bruise had started to form. He tried to suppress a smile, but failed dismally.

"Two feet to the left and you'll come through all right," he said, grinning.

"Thanks, buddy," James said sarcastically before he made another attempt to enter the hidden corridor. He was successful this time.

Considering the early hour, the fact that he hadn't had breakfast and the pain on his forehead, James was in a surprisingly good mood. The long night's sleep had done him some good; he felt mischievous again and was looking forward to the lessons. He just hoped that they would be able to get some decent seats for the Defence Against the Dark Arts class. To his great surprise they were some of the first students that arrived in the classroom, due to the fact that Remus seemed to know exactly where they had to go. They made their way to the front row and claimed two desks right in front of the teacher's desk. To James' dismay, he had to sit next to Sirius but he didn't mind that much. Sirius, on the other hand, looked sour. Apparently, today was his day to be in a grumpy mood. The rest of the class filled in slowly. Snape took the seat behind Sirius. James stared at him loathingly and his good mood seemed to darken slightly.

"You could at least apologize for cursing me yesterday," he snapped at Snape.

Snape looked up from his book broadly. A smirk appeared on his face.

"Why don't you leave me alone Potter?" sneered Snape. "Just go comb your hair, will you?" he added with a glance at the mess that was the top of James' head.

Before James could retort, the bell rang and Professor Palmer entered the room.

"Sure I will. On the day you decide to wash yours," hissed James in Snape's direction, before sitting down in his seat.

A couple of late students hurried in.

"Sorry Professor. We couldn't find the classroom and that poltergeist kept chasing us in the wrong direction."

"No problem, but now settle down please, I would like to start," said Professor Palmer.

To the class' surprise she wasn't wearing a cloak today, either. Instead, she wore comfortable black pants and a t-shirt with Chinese signs. James recognized her as the woman from his dream. He was distracted from his memories when Professor Palmer spoke again.

"Welcome to my class. As you'll all probably know about the importance of this class, I won't bother you with long speeches. Instead we will start right away with curses," she started. "Err, yes Mr… what's your name?"

A small boy in the back of the class had raised a slightly trembling hand. James thought he had seen the boy before but couldn't recall where.

"Peter Pettrigrew. I don't understand the importance of this class. It's not likely that we are going to be attacked, is it?"

"If you had lived in 1945, you would say the exact opposite. People then had to be afraid of an attack every day," Palmer responded, surprised at that question.

"Yes, but that was Grindelwald's time. He's gone now, isn't he?" asked Peter, his voice shaking.

The Professor smiled at him kindly.

"Yes, that was Grindelwald's time, and before that it was Grumblepack in 1903, and Barnabas Booger around 1858 and Diddlefink before him, and Larkin Liquorice before him" she said kindly. "Shall I continue? The defeat of one dark lord doesn't mean there'll be no others after him. So we should be prepared as early as possible. Don't you think so, Mr. Pettrew?"

Peter nodded embarrassed and put his hand down.

"Good," the Professor beamed. "Who can tell me what to do, if somebody is trying to curse you?"

Several hands shot in the air, Remus and James' among them. Palmer looked around and noticed Snape.

"And your name is?"

"Severus Snape," he said.

"Very well, Mr. Snape, can you come up to the front to demonstrate what you would do when attacked? I'm going to use a minor curse which is not classified as dangerous and you'll do whatever you like," said the Professor.

Snape got to his feet and looked at Palmer, almost assessing. He seemed to be fully convinced of himself, a fact that made James like him even less.

"Are you ready?" said Professor Palmer as she drew out her wand.

Snape nodded, his wand clutched tightly in his hand.

"On the count of three, then. One, two, three, Locomotor Mortis," she said.

Light erupted from the tip of her wand and shot at Snape. But he was prepared and muttered an incantation that caused the curse to bounce of an invisible barrier and hit the Professor instead. A collective gasp went through the class as Professor Palmer's legs sprang together and she fell to the floor.

"A blocking charm. Very impressive and really advanced as well," she said from the floor.

"Finite Incantatum. Ten points to Slytherin."

Professor Palmer looked as cheerful as ever when she scrambled to her feet again and straightened her t-shirt.

"Anybody else knowing any protective spells?"

The lesson went on with Professor Palmer showing them a disarming spell and demonstrating how to respond when you didn't have your wand at hand. James earned Gryffindor ten points for attacking her with the leg locker curse, which she dodged gracefully this time.

Five minutes to the bell Professor Palmer took out a sheet of parchment and handed it to Remus, who was sitting in the front row.

"I'd ask you to keep today's seating arrangement throughout the year and sign your name into this chart. I'm really bad at memorizing names and this will hopefully enable me to remember them. I considered nametags first, but I guess some of you would forget to bring them next lesson and it's too much trouble to make new ones each time," she said.

James scanned the seating arrangement. It was perfect. Remus would hand the chart to him, he would hand it on to Sirius who would have to pass it to Snape. James took the parchment, signed his name next to Remus' and looked around quickly. Professor Palmer was busy with her desk. She wouldn't notice, and Sirius was copying the last lines from the blackboard. Quickly, James pulled the small bottle of colourless potion out of his pocket and applied the liquid over the whole parchment leaving just a tiny spot in one corner. It dried instantly. Careful just to touch the spot in the corner of the parchment, James shoved the chart to the edge of his desk. Sirius was done writing and looked at the parchment.

"Are you ever going to hand it to me?" he asked James exasperatedly.

"Come and get it," said James pleasantly.

Sirius rolled his eyes, but got up to take the seating chart all the same. Careless, he signed his name on it and turned around to Snape. James held his breath and watched out of the corner of his eyes as Snape reached out to take the parchment from Sirius. Both of them were touching it now. James hid his face in his hands to conceal an evil grin.

'Three, two, one, now,' he counted and as he reached 'now' he heard a distinct:

"What on earth?"

Everybody looked up at Sirius, looking for the reason he was swearing. James managed to pull his face straight again and looked up as well. What he saw almost made him burst out with laughter again. Sirius shook his hand frantically, which was still holding the parchment, and his face was screwed up in frustration. Snape, still clinging on to the chart as well looked at him, puzzled, trying to determine if Sirius had lost his marbles.

"Just let go, will you?" he told Sirius.

"I'm trying," Sirius replied angrily. "You let go."

He stopped shaking his hand like mad and looked at Snape hopefully. Snape rolled his eyes, but the next moment they went wide with shock. He couldn't let go of the parchment. His hand seemed to be glued to it.

"What's going on?"

Professor Palmer came to investigate the source of the commotion.

"We're stuck to your seating chart," Sirius said angrily.

He tried to pull free with all his might several times without success. The parchment didn't tear in two, either. Professor Palmer bent down to have a closer look at the parchment with the hands of two of her first year students attached to it.

"I see. It's a very clever sticking charm," she said, delighted.

"Finite," she said, pointing her wand at the seating chart.

Nothing happened. Sirius and Snape looked at her desperately.

"Do something," yelled Sirius.

James noticed the slight hint of horror in his voice and smiled to himself. Black looked positively frantic by now.

"Sorry boys, there's noting I can do for you," said Professor Palmer. "But not to worry. The effect will probably wear off in a few hours."

"Er… if you need to get it off sooner, you might try the infirmary and ask Madame Pomfrey for a potion that can undo the effect. But I doubt she has it in store. It is usually used for grown-in toenails and can't be stored very long before it starts to smell. But maybe you're in luck," she said as she saw the horror struck face of Sirius and the ashen one of Snape.

James left his first ever Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson in a very good mood when the bell rang.

Little Astronomy lesson 

_Sirius_: brightest star; in the constellation of Canis Major ( big dog, where else would he be J)

_Regulus:_ in the constellation of Leo

Bellatrix: in the constellation of Orion 

_Andromeda:_ constellation in the northern hemisphere

_Alphard: _in the constellation of Hydra

_Castor, Pollux_: in the constellation of Gemini

_Narcissa_:??? Can't find her anywhere; If you know where the name comes from, please tell me.

Thanks for reading this. I hope you liked it.


	4. When He Was Bad

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

**Chapter 4: When He Was Bad**

James didn't see Snape or Sirius again for any of their other classes. Apparently the school nurse hadn't been able to solve their little problem. But James didn't have too much time to be pleased with himself, because Remus hurried him from one class to another. He was very glad that Remus seemed to have an amazing sense of direction, because he, James, would have gotten lost in the huge castle for several times.

After their last class of the day, Charms, they returned to the common room. James would have liked to sneak out to the Quidditch field and borrow a school broom, but the downpour of rain outside didn't look too inviting. Instead he had accepted Remus' challenge in wizarding chess.

Two hours later they still hadn't finished their first game. It was James turn and on examining the board closely, he noticed that Remus was about to take his queen. Desperately he tried to find a way to save her but every move seemed to endanger his king instead.

"How did you like the Charms?" asked Remus. "Professor Flitwick seems to be a very good teacher. I mean he definitely knows what he's talking about."

"Yeah, he does, but it is kind of hard to take him entirely serious. He is a nice man, no doubt, but he doesn't strike me as an authority figure. I think his classes will be fun and not too hard. But what do you make of Professor Palmer? I really can't make her out. She seems to know an awful lot about her stuff, but on the other hand she doesn't seem to notice much about what's going on around her."

"Oh, I think she did notice, if you meant that sticking solution on the parchment. But I don't know why she didn't tell you off. I guess we will have to wait a little before we find out what her deal is," said Remus.

"Maybe she just doesn't like Snape and Black either. The way Snape hexed her right in front of the class, that would make everybody angry," laughed James in reply.

"But she didn't seem angry. And she asked him to protect himself. Do you want to practise that blocking spell later?" said Remus.

"What? Oh, hmm," replied James distracted.

He was staring at his hopeless situation on the chessboard again. He concentrated hard; a thin frown line appeared on his forehead.

Suddenly the portrait hole swung open and he got distracted. Sirius entered the common room and marched straight up to him. Something green and slimy covered his arms and the front of his robes.

He looked like he was about to explode.

"That was you," he said furiously.

"Prove it," James smiled like he didn't have a care in the world.

Sirius just stood there, staring at James in disbelieve.

"You call my family evil? None of them would have come up with something vicious like that," he cried, before stomping off towards the dormitory stairs, probably to get the slime off himself.

"I really didn't do that," laughed James. "What is that slime?"

Remus had been watching their intercourse silently. Sirius' appearance had been slightly amusing to him, although Remus couldn't understand why James disliked him so much. Remus had been talking to Sirius only shortly during breakfast and he had seemed to be a nice enough boy. That was until Sirius had received the howler from his mother. Afterwards, Sirius hadn't been that talkative anymore.

Remus felt quite sorry for Sirius. He could still remember the day his own father had turned from him. Two months later he had left the family because he couldn't stand his son being what he was. All that had happened a few years ago, but Remus still felt the pain that his father's reaction had left in him. To his father it hadn't mattered that Remus wasn't in the least to blame.

Sirius wasn't to blame for being in Gryffindor either. Remus would have liked to talk to Sirius again, but he had seemed unapproachable after that howler.

Remus snapped back to reality when James finally burst out laughing hard. Apparently he had tried to suppress it until Sirius was out of earshot.

"Did you see his face?" asked James, giggling madly.

Remus raised an eyebrow at James. In his opinion the sticking solution had been a very mean joke, but Remus didn't dare voice it aloud. James was the first friend he might have in years and he wasn't going to jeopardize that so quickly.

"You are aware that Snape and Sirius didn't even make it to the Entrance Hall before they started cursing each other, aren't you? I think Sirius had sprouted antlers and Snape was tap-dancing to the rhythm of his hiccoughs before they reached the infirmary. I heard some third years talk about it," Remus said.

James almost toppled over with laughter.

"Great," he grinned. "But it's a pity that they are just first years and don't know any dangerous curses."

James leaned back relaxed. It seemed that with his revenge he had gotten what he wanted and didn't think about any revenge that his victims could be planning. Remus wasn't as shortsighted and realized that James had probably started a war without realizing it. He smiled at his friend's naivety.

"Don't worry about that. You'll be the first one to know when they learn any new curses, because you kind of attached a target to your chest today. Once Snape and Sirius are done cursing each other, they will be after your blood," said Remus.

James face fell and he swallowed at the thought of what any of the two could be planning to get back on him.

"Well as long as I'm not glued to one of them it's alright I guess," he said, but sounded unconvinced.

Still thinking about what had happened, James didn't notice Remus stealing one of James' pawns from the chessboard secretly. It would have been James' last chance to avoid defeat.

The next day, James kept in mind what Remus had said about pinning a target to his chest. He tried to keep a close watch on all sudden movements Sirius made, always expecting an attack.

Nothing extraordinary happened during their first class, which happened to be History of Magic. Nothing if you didn't count the incident that occurred at the start of the lesson and didn't involve either James or Sirius. It just involved a small mousy haired boy who screamed in fright as he realized that a ghost would teach this lesson.

James had a fleeting impression of the boy turning very pale during the sorting ceremony when the ghosts had entered the Great Hall. But he had not been paying close attention to the boy then and he was preoccupied now too. The fact that Sirius seemed to ignore him unnerved James more than he wanted to admit to himself.

The next lesson of the day happened to be Transfiguration, the subject James had been looking forward to most, besides Defence Against The Dark Arts. Mr. Ollivander had been telling James that his wand was especially good for transfiguration work and James soon found that he was quite talented. He was very well able to turn a match into a needle like the strict Professor McGonagall had instructed them to do.

James had forgotten all about Sirius and examined the perfect point of his needle when, oddly enough, it started to move. First it just rolled over on the desktop, but then it suddenly left the table and floated in midair. James looked perplexed and reached out for the needle to put it back onto his desk. He pulled his hand back quickly as the needle pinched him. James wouldn't have minded so much but the next moment the needle's movement involved trying to pinch his face. While warding it off and receiving another pinch in the hand James spotted the source of the needle's misbehaviour. It was Sirius Black who sat a few desks away and was pointing his wand at James' freshly transfigured match.

'If he can do that, I can,' James thought and used the spell Professor Flitwick had showed them the previous day to levitate the needle that lay in front of Sirius. Within a few seconds a needle fight (imagine a sword fight with two swords that float in midair and are the size of needles) had started on top of the head of a blonde Ravenclaw boy, who had unwisely taken the seat between the two fighters.

Everybody else was concentrating very hard on transfiguring their matches, without success and Professor McGonagall was patrolling the front desks to correct wand movements and the pronunciation of spells, so the little fight went unnoticed and the two needles were free to maim and mangle their masters as they wished.

James spotted a weak spot in Sirius' defence and took the opportunity at once. A sharp jerk of his wand caused one needle to dodge the other abruptly, made it swerve left and aim straight for Sirius' wand hand. Sirius noticed it in time and pulled his hand out of the way so that his wand broke contact with the needle he had been bewitching. The needle fell and landed in the back of the Ravenclaw's hand.

"Ouch," screamed the boy.

Within a heartbeat, Professor McGonagall was next to him.

"What is going on here?" she asked in a voice that could have turned steam to ice in an instant.

Her hawk-like eyes spotted the source of the commotion and wandered over the faces of the nearby students. Neither James nor Sirius had the time or presence of mind to wipe the expression of guilt from their faces that had taken residence there, before Professor McGonagall met them. Her face seemed to consist only of two angry eyes and a very thin line where one would usually look for the mouth.

James gulped.

Later that day, when James thought about his first ever Transfiguration lesson several things wormed him. The first one was that Professor McGonagall had given Sirius and him two evenings of detention and an enormous amount of homework, which would prevent him from sneaking to the Quidditch pitch for at least a week.

He drew two very important conclusions from this incident.

One: He should avoid causing trouble under McGonagall's nose at all costs in future.

Two: He should try to improve his expression of puzzled innocence (which had been the success of many years of hard work) in case number one failed.

The other thing that bothered James about the lesson was that Sirius had not only transformed his match as well as James had done, but that he had also been able to perform the levitation charm although he had missed Professor Flitwick's class yesterday. That proved Sirius to be quite intelligent and James wasn't sure whether to should be angry that he, James, wasn't the best or whether he should be happy that he had found an equal opponent.

Remembering his transfiguration homework, he decided to be angry with Sirius.

James and Sirius stayed in the Great Hall after everybody else had left. Argus Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker, entered with two buckets of water and an assortment of sponges and dusters. Then he started to lecture them. None of the boys paid close attention to him, so they just heard words like 'rule-breakers', 'filthy students' or 'hang by their ankles'.

When Filch left the hall and each of the boys was armed with mops and sponges they started work. James picked the left side of the hall, while Sirius walked off to the right side.

James just never had realized how messy it looked in here after dinner. Bits of food, mud and puddles of various beverages covered the floor. Sighing James started mopping the floor at top speed. Next time he had to do detention in the great hall he would be very careful not to spill anything. Due to the sheer size of the hall they would probably be in here all night.

After an hour of cleaning and not talking to each other, James finally got tired of the silence. He looked over at Sirius who seemed to be particularly grouchy this evening and hadn't spoken a word since entering the great hall.

Thinking hard about what to say, James tried to start a conversation that wouldn't end with one of them yelling at the other.

"You're awfully quiet today," was his brilliant approach.

Sirius looked up, startled.

"Like you care," he said annoyed.

Taken aback, James switched to defense modus.

"Oh, I'm sorry to bother you," he snapped.

"I was just thinking," answered Sirius, slightly guilty.

He looked at James from the side. Was it possible that he really just had wanted to start a conversation?

James didn't notice.

"Must hurt," he said under his breath and turned away.

Sirius' face darkened.

"I'm done over here," he said, picked up his bucket and started towards the door, deliberately dripping water everywhere.

"Hey, I've just cleaned that up. Wait and wipe that away," yelled James angrily.

"Uuups. Sorry," said Sirius without turning around.

"Come back here."

When Sirius kept on walking, James grabbed his dirty sponge and threw it at Sirius. It hit him squarely in the neck.

"Bad mistake," he said quietly, before turning around and throwing his own sponge back at James.

James dodged it in time and threw another wet sponge at Sirius, soaking his robes.

"You asked for it," said Sirius, grabbed his own bucket and emptied the contents on James' head.

Thus started a water fight, which flooded the great hall, and secured them another detention for the next day.

„Three detentions the first week of school. This must be a new record," stated Sirius, who was soaked through by now.


End file.
